Thinking through solidarity organizing, with an eye to how we can better live the change, as well as how we often slip in to colonial patterns when working together across distance and difference. Written from the perspective of a long time US and now Canada based international solidarity activist turned political geographer.

Apr 21, 2017

denim day

April 26th 2017 is this year's #denimday, where you are asked to wear jeans as a way to speak out against sexual violence. As I have blogged before, one of my various critiques of this campaign is that so many people regularly wear jeans that it would be hard for your jeans to stand out on this day.

But I've learned that all cadets and staff at the US military academy West Point have been officially encouraged to wear jeans that day - and in fact the email they got about it explained the history of this solidarity action better than the official site does:

"all of West Point is encouraged to
wear jeans to work as a visible means of protest against the
misconceptions that surround sexual assault. Denim Day was originally
triggered by a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape
conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the
victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove
her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the
Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the
victim. Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of
protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual
assault."
Well since the military rarely wears jeans, and has a serious sexual assault epidemic, I would be happy to see them all wear jeans on this day. It would be particularly striking if they wore uniforms on top and jeans below!